This blog is posted from a now retired 33 year CAW (now UNIFOR) member. The purpose of this blog is to allow others to see the perspective of the average worker, rather than the views of the Union Leadership If you have any concerns or comments on this blog, contact me at Email:paulsblues45@hotmail.com
On Twitter: @PaulinAjax

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Green Party Of Canada Election Tactics 101- Part 2

Adding on to my previous post, a few interesting comments here:

"I blogged some time ago on the choice of SGI as Elizabeth May’s target riding. The post is not rigourously supported with data, but it is directionally sound, and outlines the type of campaign needed and the consequences for the other 307 campaigns. What it boils down to is that there is a significant block of senior citizens, who have reliably voted for Gary Lunn in the past. They are dominant in SGI, and have to be seperated from the CPC by fair means or foul. The only possibility for Elizabeth to eke out a win in SGI is to convert a significant chunk of these votes to GPC votes, or to get twice as many of them to stay at home on Eday. This week, the first nationally visible attemp to suppress Lunns support was executed, with the joint press conference featuring Elizabeth May, and Linda Keen, the former Nuclear watchdog clumsily fired by Lunn. Given the topicality of nuclear safety, highlighting Lunns bungling of the Chalk River shutdown is a job well done. It will have some legs locally, as it resulted in the demotion of Lunn from the Natural Resources portfolio to Minister for Sport. Granted, it doesn’t give anybody a reason to vote Green, but it does speak to an issue on which the GPC has some credibility. There was a fair bit of local, and national press coverage, so I can guarantee you that it was discussed this weekend at many a dining table in SGI. Doubt has been planted, and a smidgin of Lunn support has been killed off. We can expect that there will be something similar every week until Eday. True to form, the press conference had nothing of value for the other 307 campaigns, but hey, our sole objective is to win in SGI, so who can complain?

The GPC tactics in SGI included the usual sign destruction garbage as well. Most of the "volunteers" were foreign avaaz shock troops. It's a tough riding because of the gulf islands. Gary didn't waste any resources there so who knows what happened at those polls but I'd bet there was at least some stuffing.

lol, I am not sure if I should sue you for mis-representing me as a Geen Party official, or if I should laugh it off. I should perhaps mention that Elizabeth May and I are not friends. Quite the opposite. I will repeat that while what I wrote was and is true, it had nothing to do with what the Green Party actually did. There are some individuals here and there in the Green Party who would have understood what I was writing, and a smaller number who would know how to put into effect what I blogged about, but 99% of the actual, real, experienced campaign workers who could implement a decent campaign plan quit the party years ago. Most of the posts I wrote in that time frame were intended to highlight the incompetence of the management and lack of political skills of the GPC.

I would also like to comment about the actual 'robo-call scandal'. It is not scandalous that people try to turn off their opponents voters. It is not scandalous that campaigns use demon-diallers to narrowcast specific messages. Some partys are better than others at doing it, but it is a simple enough communications tool. What IS scandalous, is when you employ these devices in a criminal vote suppression scheme. Mis-directing voters to phony polling stations, and mis-representing yourself is both slimy politics, and seriously illegal. There is just no comparison.

Bluegreenblogger.. you will get no arguement from any Conservative that voter suppression is a crime and should be punished. nWhere this smear campaign is going off the rails ismthe fact that all evidence of dirty tricks seem to be pointing to other parties. If you have one iota of evidence that the CPC was involved in any voter supression, please let us know because all I have seen is innuendo based on pure fabrication.

Please stop insinuating that Conservatives do not take this seriously ..but until you hav proof it is Conservatives behind it, you need to back off until investigations are completed.

Appreciaiate your comments BGB. I agree 100% that whoever was behind the misleading phone calls should be sent to jail. If it turns out to be the Conservative Party they have lost my vote.

Please note I provided a link to your about-me page in a previous post, and alluded to the fact you are not now an "official" of the party in the comments.

I also welcome the opportunity to debate you on this issue, and start by pointing out the fact that your most recent post is factually incorrect.

"Then there is the sheer volume of calls. Robo-calling is fairly cheap, but it isn’t free when you start calling tens of thousands of people. Many of these calls were reported as coming from live telemarketers. Folks, live calling is many things, but cheap it is not. Even if only 10% of the 31,000 complainants to date were substantiated, that still adds up to a lot of money. And it is probable that if there were 31,000 reported incidents, there were many times that number that went unreported. That is a surmise, but I do not for a second think that the number of suppression calls was limited to the 31,000 complainants"

Elections Canada has not had 31,000 "complaints", something you state as fact, but 31,000 "contacts". The contacts were a result of an online petition from a sidegroup with ties to the NDP, Leadnow.ca. They sent out a mass emailing, with the head of Elections Canada as a recipient of that petition.

EC in fact had roughly 30 official complaints after the election, with almost all coming from the riding of Guelph. That count jumped into the hundreds, which was a result of media driven coverage.

If you have the most important fact of your blog post wrong, then it follows all your other accusations, including the finger pointing at the CPC because of CIMS goes out the window. On your own blog, you mentioned GRIMES, the system the Green Party uses to identify both supporters and non-supporters.

By the way, I would be interested in hearing your explanation for this comment:

"What it boils down to is that there is a significant block of senior citizens, who have reliably voted for Gary Lunn in the past. They are dominant in SGI, and have to be seperated from the CPC by fair means or foul".

Fair means or foul? Please explain. Because on it's face value that comment sounds slimy, and could be taken to mean breaking election laws.

@paul, you conflated the word complainant with complaint. The 31,000 complainants was a number released by Elections Canada. And you are simply not telling the truth when you claim that 31,000 contacts were all generated by one website. They came from a wide variety of sources, and originated in many ridings.

As the quote you abstracted says, I did not claim that they were all true. I believe that many of those 31,00 are probably false, or relating to something different. I also do not for a second think that anything near to the actual total of illegal calls have been reported. It is unlikely because most people do not care, do not remember, or do not know how to make a complaint. It is irrelevant how many criminal calls were made, except as it pertains to the extent of the conspiracy.

Capstick and the media already admitted the Leadnow petition was the result of the contacts. Don't know what else I can do to change your mind. NDP MP Pat Martin claimed Capstick had nothing to do with the NDP when Evan Solomon asked about the petition being the result of the EC contacts.

Send a letter to EC and ask them. They usually reply in 48 hours. They won't tell you the number of actual complaints, but will verify that the petition is indeed responsible for the contacts.